VINCENT BONSIGNORE: Are Clippers elite? It's a legitimate question

Not trying to be that guy, but if you're keeping it real with the Clippers you have every right to wonder how legitimate they really are.

For all their alley-oop passes and highlight-reel dunks and YouTube clips that immediately go viral, when it comes to hanging with the best teams in the NBA the Clippers haven't exactly cemented their validity as an elite team.

It's a disturbing trend that continued Wednesday in a 96-85 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at Staples Center, which followed recent losses to upper-echelon NBA teams like the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.

The Clippers can dunk with the best of them. They just can't beat the best of them.

And that's a huge problem for a team with championship aspirations.

"I don't know what it is," a frustrated Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. "But we have to figure it out soon, though. Or it's going to be a quick postseason."

The Clippers look the part, boasting a couple of young All-Stars in Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and one of the deepest rosters in the NBA.

They act like it, their swagger as prominent as anyone in the league with the steely-eyed Paul setting a confident tone.

And when it comes to style and pizzazz, nobody does the Internet or late-night highlight shows like the Clippers, with Griffin and Jordan taking turns crushing social media with their thunderous slam dunks.

But while all that is fine during the course of a long regular season, does it play in the postseason, when focus is sharpened and the pace of games slows to a crawl and the importance of substance over style grows acutely prominent?

Bottom line, are the Clippers tough enough to be a real player when it counts?

And can they figure out their issues against elite teams in time to make a prolonged playoff run?

"I'd like to think it's possible," Paul said.

But the way they've struggled recently against the better teams in the NBA, it makes you wonder.

"We just need to play the right way when the time comes," Paul said. "And we're not there yet."

Again, that's a concern.

The Miami Heat toyed with the Clippers in a 111-89 win. The San Antonio Spurs strutted into Staples Center and crushed them, 116-90 and two weeks ago the Oklahoma City Thunder beat them 108-104 on their home floor.

The Clippers brushed each loss off with well-versed excuses. Injuries had depleted their roster or caused disruption in their rhythm and chemistry.

Besides, it's silly to worry too much about losses in February or March when the balance of the season remained to rectify things.

The explanations seemed valid and sincere, and if you've been in Los Angeles long enough, you know too well nothing of significance is ever won in the regular season.

So we cut them some slack.

Even though skepticism remained.

Not trying to be that guy, just keeping it real.

The Grizzlies will never be mistaken for the Heat, Spurs or Thunder, but they arrived in Los Angeles a half-game ahead of them in the Western Conference standings and are just good enough and nasty enough to present the sort of problems the Clippers haven't handled well this year.

In other words, they offered the Clippers a bit of a litmus test.

This was as close to a playoff game as you'll find in mid-March - and with possession of third place in the Western Conference at stake, the Clippers had no shortage of motivation.

But just as they have in other matchups against the Spurs, Heat and Thunder, they could not put together a sufficient 48-minute effort, allowing the Grizzlies to sink 37 of 68 shots, including 6 of 12 on 3-pointers, while scoring just 33 points in the second half.

Another test, another failing grade.

"Concern, I don't know if that's the right word. Frustration, yeah," Griffin said. "We're not, by any means, scared of any team we'll face in the playoffs. But we do know we need to be playing better."

Their recent struggles are not enough to write them off, necessarily. But it makes you wonder just how good these Clippers really are.